Freedom
by complacentCatalyst
Summary: Chell is finally free from Aperture Science Laboratories... but she just can't seem to get a break. When an unexpected arrival greets her, she might be thrust back into Aperture yet again. The scary part is: she just might be okay with that. No pairings.
1. Chapter 1

The sun shines brightly through a clear blue sky in which there are few clouds, albeit there is nothing to shine on; just an endless expanse of golden grass. The only thing that stands out in the field is a small clearing of dry dirt. A hastily built wooden outhouse is erected in the middle of the clearing and has multiple warning signs nailed to it.

There is nowhere to go. She doesn't dare go into that fake outhouse – she just walked out of it and there is nothing down there except insanity. The field looks so empty. There most likely isn't any civilization for miles… possibly even further than that. It could be weeks before she finds another living soul. She can't turn back, however, which means that the only way to go is through the field. There's bound to be _someone_ out there. She cannot be alone.

The grass clings to the prongs that protrude from her boots and makes it harder to walk. The sun is supplying warmth she hasn't felt in such a long time: she is used to ventilation systems and cold floors. Everything looks almost foreign, in a way, like a friend that you haven't seen since you were little and their name is on the tip of your tongue but you just can't get it. She isn't used to this. It will take her forever to get used to it, but she likes it. It's a good feeling, freedom. She can do what she wants with no cameras to record her every move and no one to tell her what to do. No more thinking or pushing herself to the limit of her physical abilities. No more recorded messages, or turrets, or recorded messages, or portals, and no more crazed AIs watching her. No more anything. She is completely alone. Is this what she was fighting for that whole time? A big grass field? Where else is there to go, and what else is there to do? As far as she knows, this world could be post-apocalyptic; that was what the pre-recorded messages had said. The only proof she has of that is the overgrown plants that infested the parts of the facility that were close to the surface; obviously no one has been in the laboratory for a long time.

Now she wants nothing more to do with Aperture Laboratories. She doesn't want to run anymore or go through those dizzying portals. Forward she walks, and for how long, she doesn't know.


	2. Chapter 2

He had voiced his regret but it wasn't enough. It is like the Itch only full of remorse instead of yearning and he can't get it out of his mind. All of that power, and what for? What could he have possibly achieved? An eternity of testing that no scientists would be alive to hear, that's what. He would have been doing all that testing for nothing. He shouldn't have let that woman plug him in. He didn't even know her name! He should have gotten acquainted properly before urging her to rush forth. Now he has nothing to do and nowhere to go and the only thing he can process is depression. The only being he can communicate with is the core floating near him ("Space! I'm in space!") but it won't listen anyway and cannot share his feelings. He wants to be with that human girl again. He wants a purpose – anything to get away from this nothingness.

He sees his salvation in the distance.

Chell holds her fall boots in her arms and the portal gun is tucked into her orange suit pants. She had been walking for such a long time – how long has it been? Two days? She has survived off of nothing but endurance and will power and her sleep has been plagued with dreams of falling and alternate dimensions and bright lights. She had spent too much time in Aperture and now it will bother her for the rest of her life.

Her walking seems fruitless. The greatest achievement so far is that there is a town off in the distance; whether it is inhabited or not, she doesn't know. Now she is dragging her feet and she feels her breath coming out in short huffs. Hunger grips her stomach.

There is a house outside of town. It looks abandoned but she doesn't care. Maybe there will be some sort of food that has survived through time – she still doesn't know how long it has been since she first defeated GLaDOS.

The house is small and inviting despite the weeds and vines growing around its exterior. Dirty and rusty toys are scattered about the yard and a lone soccer ball lies in the grass, charred and scratched. Why is only the ball burnt? And then she realizes that is not a soccer ball. It is metallic and round and nearby lays a pile of what looks like scrap metal, also blackened by some type of heat. It looks too familiar. Handles of some sort protrude from the ball. She stares silently, wondering if she has finally lost her senses. She reaches for it, then thinks better of it and pulls her hand back cautiously.

The ball moves and rolls over, revealing a large, dark, circular screen between the handlebars. There is a sort of beeping noise and blue light appears on the screen, watching her like an eye. She doesn't believe it. It isn't possible. It can't be him: he was sent into space for the rest of his existence. GLaDOS had disposed of him. How could he be here?

The blue light contracts and the metallic orb swivels to look her up and down, then lets out an expression of "Impossible" in a heavy accent. Chell continues to stare, still awestruck.

"You're alive?" Wheatley asks, still taking in her appearance as if trying to find injury or proof she isn't there. "You made it out of there? I thought for sure you were a goner – because you know, _she_ got you and all. Figured she'd make you test again because she was mad and all that. This is great! Wonderful! How did it work out like this?"

Chell tucks her boots under her arm and reaches out to pick him up by the handlebars. The light that serves as his eye dilates and his metallic eyelids close halfway. Though he is just a metal ball with programmed feelings, he looks overjoyed in a way that seems completely natural. "This is just so great," he continues. "I can't believe… how did you make it out? How long's it been? Have I been drifting around for another hundred years?"

She shakes her head, possibly the only response she has ever offered other than an occasional blank stare.

"Well, I guess that figures. Don't think you'd be alive if that were the case." He swivels his charred body around to get a good look at the area. "How far from that place are we?" he asks, though he doesn't wait for an answer because he knows he will not receive one. "Wonder if anyone's in that city. If I didn't know any better, I'd say _she_ flooded the surface with neurotoxin, too. That'd be something to scare you! Speaking of _her_, I want to talk to you about something." Chell watches him wordlessly as always while he collects his thoughts, then he speaks again. "I'm sorry. Terribly, terribly sorry. We could have gotten out of all that sooner if I hadn't been such a… There was just this… this _need_, you know? I couldn't stop it, couldn't control it. I should have just sent you up and gotten out myself somehow."

She wipes some of the soot off of him to express her forgiveness. It wasn't his fault. There was obviously something in the programming that had caused GLaDOS and even him to go mad. Wheatley gives her that happy look again, but soon it vanishes and his bottom lid quivers under his eye. Something is bothering him. She waits patiently as he tries to think of what to say again. What he says is completely uncalled for.

"I was thinking up there in space, you know," he explains, glancing upward, "and I realized that place is too crazy for us to just stand by like this. We should do something. I… I think we should go back. Oh, please stop looking like that! Hear me out. I've got—Hey, ow!" He doesn't get to finish; he slips from her grasp and lands with a _plunk_ on the grass. Chell has taken a step away from him. She cannot go back. Not after she was just freed.

He looks at her with an expression that must be pleading. "So, you'd rather let _her_ go on controlling that place for eternity? What'll happen when she gets bored?" Chell relaxes as she considers his words. She waits for him to finish. Whatever point he has, it better be good. "She'll invent some crazy way to get up here, that's what. Probably start testing on birds and deer. And then she'll get bored with them, and she'll start looking around to see what humans she can find." Now that Chell is listening intently, he presses on in a more urgent tone, hoping his point will get through before she tries to walk away. "That's why we need to get back in there," he says, "before she goes mad! Well, she's already mad in a number of ways, but you know what I mean. We've got to either get her out of there or get rid of her. And this time we'll do it right."


End file.
